City divided into 348 grids; e-registration must for travel

City divided into 348 grids; e-registration must for travel

No Entry From One Grid To Another Without Pass

Selvaraj.a@timesgroup.com

Chennai:19.05.2021 

In a novel initiative to contain lockdown violations by motorists, the Greater Chennai Police have divided the city into 348 grids and allowed intergrid movement only if roadusers had valid e-registration.

A press release from commissioner of police Shankar Jiwal’s office clarified that an epass or e-register is mandatory for anyone stepping out of their houses after 10am or before 6am. Those who don’t possess these valid registrations will not be allowed to enter from one grid to another.

The move, however, caught commuters by surprise, resulting in chaos and traffic pileups at key junctions and thoroughfares on Tuesday morning.

Commissioner Jiwal came out with the detailed traffic curbs shortly after chief minister M K Stalin’s review meeting for top police officers.

As per the new plan, the 138 police stations in city limits have been divided into 348 grids called sectors. Cops barricaded roads and allowed movement only on a handful of routes so as to enable police to verify and allow only those who had e-registrations or and frontline workers out on essential purposes. Commuters without valid documents to justify their movement outside their respective sectors were disallowed from proceeding any further.

Due to the strict enforcement, places like Spencer’s signal witnessed a big pile-up of vehicles disallowed from using the stretch. After making lockdown violators spend about an hour in the hot sun, police let them go with a warning. Similar scenes were witnessed in traffic junctions at Nandanam, Teynampet, Thiruvanmiyur, Adyar, near Gandhi statue on Kamarajar Salai, Saidapet, Guindy, Ashok Nagar and few more places. City traffic police inspector V Praveen said, “we stopped the bikes and cars at key intersections and allowed them to drive one after another, making a beeline, so that we can verify their credentials.”

Another traffic police officer at Teynampet said, “we formed two lanes – one for cars and the other for bikes -- at Teynampet junction. It was a little chaotic initially, but later it became smooth.” However, arguments broke out when a few doctors and journalists out on duty too were caught up in the melee. Many took to the social media slamming city police for enforcing the curbs without adequate prior intimation or publicity.

Traffic pile up on main roads led motorists to take a detour and crowd narrow streets to reach their destinations.

On Monday, meanwhile, Chennai police slapped 2,855 cases on people for flouting lockdown norms.

FOLLOW THE RULES: People travelling without e-pass and proper travel documents during lockdown were stopped at Anna Salai by police personnel on Tuesday